Berkshire Pride Week
Wednesday, May 31 – Sunday June 4
This will be the biggest Berkshire Pride celebration ever with 5 days of programming. There will be a flag raising, an art walk, a parade, a drag pageant, a brunch and more. It closes with a tea dance in the gardens at Naumkeag where DJ RuBot (Occupy the Disco) will return from his Paradisco residency at Le Bain at the Standard in NYC to provide the music that is going to get the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies moving.
Shakespeare Stage presents Twelfth Night
Academy of Music, Northampton
Thursday, June 1 – Saturday, June 3 at 7:30 pm.
Shakespeare Stage presents their vision of Twelfth Night. Set sometime in the 1980’s, the production will feature original music, lyrics and design composed by artistic director and company founder Julian Findlay. Now in its eighth year, Shakespeare Stage offers high quality performances and opportunities for local actor training and development. Julian is a graduate of Northfield Mount Hermon.
On the Boards
‘Interview with Archie’ by John McDonnell Tierney
LAVA Center, Greenfield
Friday, June 2 and Saturday, June 3 at 7 p.m.
For the past few months, LAVA was hosted “On the Boards” — a theater incubation series in which six local playwrights workshopped and developed new plays. Now they’re ready for an audience! Get a glimpse into the process of making theater, in this festival of staged readings of new works in many stages of development. It kicks off with Tierney’s “Interview with Archie,” focuses on two themes: faith and dementia.
Family Pride Day 2023
Springfield Museums
Saturday, June 3 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Springfield Museums hosts a celebration of diversity, equality, and family, featuring a rainbow of activities for all ages. Free with museum admission. You can learn more about LGBTQ+ scientists and inventors, go to the Drag Story Hour with Patty Bourrée, design a Pride flag, add threads to a community weaving project, and more.
The 2nd Annual Springfield Pride Parade: A Day of Pride
Saturday, June 3 from 12 – 9 p.m.
It’s a family-friendly, community-driven day of support, inclusivity, and public recognition to remind local LGBTQIA+ youth that they are safe, they are loved, and they are not alone. The parade starts at STCC, and finishes at Stearns Square, the site of a big block party with entertainment hosted by DJ Kenneth Kyrell and Ruby Monroe ending in a headliner performance by the legendary rapper Trina. Leading up to Pride Day there’s the June 1 “You Ball” gala at MGM on June 1 and the 2nd Annual Springfield Pride Parade Community Panel at STCC on June 2.
Jeffrey Foucault
The Egremont Barn
Saturday, June 3 at 7:30 p.m.
In two decades on the road, Jeffrey Foucault has become one of the most distinctive voices in American music, refining a sound recognizable for its simplicity and emotional power — a decidedly Midwestern amalgam of blues, country, rock’n’roll, and folk. Tune in to The Fabulous 413 Friday at 3 p.m. on NEPM 88.5 for a preview of what Jeffrey will be playing on Saturday night at the Egremont Barn.
John Pizzarelli Trio
Bombyx, Florence
Saturday, June 3 at 7 p.m.
One of the prime contemporary interpreters of the Great American Songbook, John Pizzarelli has expanded that repertoire by including the music of Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Antônio Carlos Jobim and the Beatles. In addition to being a bandleader and solo performer, Pizzarelli has been a special guest on recordings for major pop names such as Natalie Cole, Kristin Chenoweth, and Dave Van Ronk, as well as leading jazz artists such as Rosemary Clooney, Ruby Braff, and Buddy DeFranco.
Baba Commandant & the Mandingo Band
The Drake, Amherst
Saturday, June 3 at 8 p.m.
Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a contemporary group from Burkina Faso. Coming from Bobo-Dioulasso, the group is steeped in the Mandingue musical traditions of their ancestral legacy. The enigmatic lead singer Baba Commandant (Mamadou Sanou) is an original and eccentric character who is well respected in the Burkinabé musical community. Fela Kuti/Africa 70 and King Sunny Adé are big influences, as is the legendary Malian growler Moussa Doumbia.
Fly Anakin with YUNGMORPHEUS and Jxylen
Daily Operation, Easthampton
Saturday, June 3 at 8 p.m.
Equipped with a penchant for dizzying internal rhyme, 27-year-old Richmond, Virginia artist Fly Anakin has established himself as one of the country’s most essential rappers dedicated to transmuting the rugged spirit of ‘90s New York and sending it spinning into the future. LA-based, by way of Florida rapper YUNGMORPHEUS has a conversational style that slips between sardonic humor and intrepid observations in an instant. Favorite local MCs Jxylen and JPTRSMN will join Anakin and Morph. Plus there’s the amazingly creative menu of flavor bombs from the Daily Operation kitchen.
The Hampshire Choral Society
Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle
Tillis Performance Hall, UMass
Sunday, June 4 at 3 p.m.
Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle is a gorgeous piece that is rarely performed, probably because it is scored for chorus, two pianos and harmonium. The vocal soloists for this concert — Junko Watanabe, Justina Golden, Marc Winer, and Peter Shea — will be superb, as will the keyboard players — Jerry Noble, Scott Bailey, and Larry Picard. The premiere of a setting by Jerry Noble of an Emily Dickinson poem will open the program.
Four Hands for Healthy Habitats — A Piano Benefit Concert
Click Workspace, Northampton
Sunday, June 4 at 4:30 p.m.
Amherst-based artists Estela Olevsky and Deborah Gilwood present a 4-handed piano concert to benefit Connecticut River Conservancy. Works by Schubert, Poulenc, Lili Boulanger and Rachmaninoff will be some of the featured pieces. Estela and Deborah will perform several pieces together as well as a few solos. Light refreshments! Q & A! Great acoustics!
The Onion
Holden Theater, Amherst College
Sunday, June 4 at 3 p.m.
Here’s the opportunity to see a workshop performance of a new opera based on a fictional machine that allows a person to re-experience a memory as a visceral reality. The opera unfolds on an island in the Pacific Northwest where a neuroscientist has sequestered herself with her daughter, her co-inventor, and their invention, the Onion. The semi-staged performance of the opera’s first half will be followed by a conversation with composer/librettist Eric Sawyer and director/librettist Ron Bashford.
Watermelon Wednesdays season opener
Jacob Jolliff Band
West Whately Chapel
Wednesday, June 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Watermelon Wednesdays got its start in 2000 with the idea of booking touring musicians on Wednesday evenings, between their weekend gigs in New York and Boston. Its mission is to foster interest and appreciation of the acoustic musical arts. The 2023 summer season opens with the Jacob Jolliff band. A graduate of Berklee School of Music, Jacob has played with many of the greats of Bluegrass including Stuart Duncan, Michael Cleveland, Billy Contreras, Bela Fleck. The band specializes in Americana, traditional and neotraditional music.
North Adams SteepleCats
Season opens Wednesday, June 7 at 6:30 p.m.
A long way away from Fenway, the North Adams SteepleCats are part of the New England Collegiate Baseball League — a 13-team collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league founded in 1993 and sanctioned by the NCAA and Major League Baseball. It’s a showcase for top college-level players. It’s on the Hoosic River and adjacent to a skate park!